527 DNA tests in high school rape in France: 'Choice is simple'

Paris Male students and staff at a high school in western France 527 people in total were asked to give DNA samples beginning Monday as police search for the assailant who raped a teenage girl.

The La Rochelle prosecutors office said tests were expected to last from Monday through Wednesday at Fenelon-Notre Dame high school, where the 16-year-old was sexually assaulted Sept. 30 in a dark bathroom. Police recovered genetic material from the girls clothing, but it had no matches in the national DNA database.

The prosecutor said it was an easy decision to order the DNA tests. The DNA dragnet started Monday in La Rochelle, and prosecutor Isabelle Pagenelle says so far no one has refused.

Pagenelle said investigators exhausted all other leads in the rape last fall.

The choice is simple for me, she said. Either I file it away and wait for a match in what could be several years, or I go looking for the match myself.

Pagenelle had said anyone who refuses the test could be considered a suspect and taken into custody.

This happened during the school day in a confined space, Chantal Devaux, the private Roman Catholic schools director, said in interviews with French media. The decision to take such a large sample was made because it was the only way to advance the investigation.

Summonses went out last week to 475 students, 31 teachers and 21 others either staff or males who were on campus at the time. The cost to analyze the samples is estimated to total 5,000 euros ($6,900)

Devaux acknowledged that all the results could come back negative, sending investigators back to the drawing board.

France has an extensive DNA database, with a total of 2 million profiles kept on file as of 2012, and refusing a test can be used against suspects in court.

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527 DNA tests in high school rape in France: 'Choice is simple'